Solemnly pledging to discharge their duties honestly and in accordance with the Constitution, the 25-member federal cabinet took oath on Friday two days after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif assumed office as the country’s chief executive.

Out of the 25 cabinet members, 16 took oath as federal ministers while nine were sworn in as ministers of state or junior ministers.

With the new prime minister by his side, President Asif Ali Zardari administered the oath to the new cabinet, signalling the culmination of the transition of power from one civilian government to another.

The portfolios of federal and state ministers were notified following their oath taking. Ishaq Dar was appointed as the Minister for Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatisation, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan as Minister for Interior and Narcotics Control, Abdul Qadir Baloch as Minister of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources. Rana Tanvir has been allotted the portfolio of defence production while Khwaja Muhammad Asif has received the most challenging portfolio – the Ministry of Water and Power. Saad Rafiq has been given charge of the Ministry of Railways while Zahid Hamid has been allotted the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights.

Apart from Ishaq Dar, the two other senators who took oath as federal ministers were Pervez Rasheed (Minister of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage) and Kamran Michael (Minister for Ports and Shipping). Sikandar Bosan has been inducted as Minister for National Food Security and Research, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional’s Sadruddin Rashdi has been given the office of the Minister of Human Resource Development and Overseas Pakistanis, Ahsan Iqbal has been allotted the Ministry of Planning and Development and Sardar Yousaf has been appointed as the Minister of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony. Barjees Tahir has been appointed as the Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan, and National Peoples Party’s Murtaza Jatoi the Minister of Industries and Production.

Two women parliamentarians have been included as junior ministers, namely Saira Afzal Tarar (national health services, regulations and coordination) and Anoushey Rehman (IT and telecom).

Interestingly, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has kept two key portfolios, that of foreign affairs and defence, with himself.

Some political analysts believe the new premier took this step as an attempt to establish civilian supremacy over the affairs of these two crucial ministries, which have traditionally been the domain of the military establishment.

In addition to the federal and state ministers, Sartaj Aziz has been appointed as the Advisor to the Prime Minister on National Security. He has also been given the additional responsibility of the advisor on foreign affairs. Capt (retd) Shujaat Azeem has been appointed as the Advisor to the Prime Minister on Aviation.

Sanaullah Zehri has been appointed as a Special Assistant to the Prime Minister with the status of a federal minister, while Tariq Fatemi has also been appointed as Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs with the status of a minister of state.

Of the cabinet members who took oath, 19 belong to Punjab, the stronghold of PML-Nawaz. Three members belong to Sindh – one each from PML-N’s allied parties PML-F and the NPP. Two cabinet members hail from Balochistan and one belongs to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Three of Sharif’s federal ministers Zahid Hamid, Sikandar Bosan and Sardar Yousuf have served as ministers between 2002 and 2007, when PML-N’s breakaway faction PML-Quaid ruled the country with then president Pervez Musharraf.

Another probable name in the cabinet who reportedly could not reach the Presidency in time to take the oath, Riaz Pirzada. was a minister under the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government as a member of PML-Q.

Although the size of the cabinet has far exceeded earlier projections – initial reports suggested the cabinet would not include more than a dozen or so members – it is still very much within the limit prescribed by article 92 of the Constitution.

Sartaj Aziz

Aziz served as finance minister during both the first and second terms of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. In 1984, Aziz served Gen Ziaul Haq’s govt as minister of state for food, agriculture and cooperatives. Aziz was appointed minister of finance, planning and economic affairs in Nawaz’s cabinet from 1990 to 1993. After the PML-N’s victory in the 1997 elections, Aziz was re-appointed finance minister. His last assignment was at the foreign ministry.

Kamran Michael

Michael is a Christian businessman who served as a minister in the Punjab cabinet before his election as senator last year. He has served as member of the Punjab Assembly during 2002-07. Michael returned to the Punjab Assembly for a second term in 2008 on one of the eight seats reserved for minorities. He has also served as minister for human rights and minorities in the
Punjab Assembly.

Abdul Qadir Baloch

General (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch, who has been elected twice to the NA from his constituency in Quetta, holds the distinction of being the first ethnic Baloch general in Pakistan Army. He has also served as governor of Balochistan during Gen Musharraf’s regime. He served as the corps commander of Quetta before retiring prematurely to take up the post of governor.

Zahid Hamid

He is the son of Khawaja Rafiq, a Pakistan Muslim League leader, who was assassinated in the 1970s.

Zahid Hamid also served as Federal Minister for Privatisation and Investment and then as Law Minister in the Musharraf government, but joined the PML-N before the 2008 elections. A lawyer by profession, Hamid has extensively debated legal issues in the previous government. He is the principal drafter of Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1997.

Khawaja Saad Rafique

Saad Rafique is a senior politician and PML-N member, who has been winning National Assembly elections from Lahore for the last three general elections — 2002, 2008 and 2013. Being a central leader of PML-N, he also served as Federal Minister for Culture, with the additional portfolio of Youth Affairs for four months in Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani’s first cabinet.

Anusha Rehman

State Minister Anusha Rehman is a lawyer by profession, a senior parliamentarian and old worker of the PML-N. In the previous assembly, she was a member of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice. She served as the women wing leader of the PML-N in Lahore. Also, she has pleaded various cases in the superior courts.

Khawaja Asif

In the 2013 general elections, he was elected for the fourth term as a member of the National Assembly on PML-N’s ticket. He was elected as an MNA in the years 1993, 1997, 2002, 2008 and 2013. He also served as a senator during the years 1991–1993. In the Nawaz Sharif’s cabinet of 1997–1999, Khawaja Asif held the portfolio of Chairman Privatisation Commission, with the status of a federal minister.

Ahsan Iqbal

PML-N deputy secretary general Ahsan Iqbal is also a member of the party’s Central Executive Committee. After student politics in Lahore, he joined Pakistan Muslim League in 1988, which later went on to become PML-N. Iqbal was elected for the first time from NA-90 in the 1993 elections, and later re-elected from the same constituency in 1997. He won his seat again in 2008 and 2013.

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi

Abbasi, the founder and CEO of Airblue airlines, served as the minister for commerce in 2008 for a brief period. He has also served as chairman and CEO of PIA from 1997 to 1999. Abbasi obtained a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from University of California, Berkeley. He went on to study for a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from George Washington University, Washington DC.

Ishaq Dar Finance minister

Muhammad Ishaq Dar is a chartered accountant by profession and a leading financial-cum-economic expert. He has also served as leader of opposition in the Senate. He was made finance minister for the first time in November 1998 in the second term of the Nawaz Sharif led PML-N government and was picked for the same office for a brief period by the short-lived PPP-PML-N coalition government in 2008.

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan

Chaudhry Nisar started his political career in the 80s, and has won eight consecutive elections for the National Assembly from his Rawalpindi constituency. He has previously served as minister of science and technology and as the minister of petroleum and natural resources for two terms. After the 2008 elections, Khan was appointed leader of the opposition and became chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. He later resigned.

Tariq Fatemi

Tariq Fatemi, a former career diplomat, is a regular columnist for The Express Tribune. Besides numerous assignments in foreign missions abroad, Fatemi has served as High Commissioner to Zimbabwe, with concurrent accreditation to Angola, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia, and also as ambassador to the US for three months. Later, he served as envoy to Jordan, and was ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg and Head of Mission to the EU.

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Reader Comments (12)

God help Pakistan! These “extremely competent people” have served nearly thrice before, right???! We;; Since Maryam Nawaz Shareef has aready deemed them the best choice, what can one say of this non familial non heirarchial party!

So money launderers are honest and competent and what happened to the promise of a small cabinet? Looks like Noon league is looking as far as the next election. They want to resolve the energy crisis and then try winning the next election.

I hope that the Federal Cabinet will perform its duties to the entire satisfaction of the nation.

Becoming Ministers in the Federal Cabinet is nothing, but it is more important to retain the Ministership after providing relief to the poor masses.

Let me elaborate here that voters gave chance to PML(N) but at the same time there is a very strong opposition. On the opposition benches all those parties whose candidates won the election but could not get the majority are sitting there.

And the most astonishing thing is that people who brought PML(N) into power have also gone to sit on the opposition benches to check the as what government is doing.

Let me remind to the newly elected Government that there is a strong media in the country and if any individual Minister or the Federal Cabinet will take any decision which will not be in the interest of masses, or if the people will get hurt, the individual Minister or the Federal Government should be ready to face the music.

Although very many faces in the cabinet are old but the determination of their party leader is new .I believe that it is the team leader who matters most in any set up .so if he is honest and straight he can easily remove twists in any team member .May Allah Bless them all with wisdom and strength to serve the nation in real sense .Ameen

Although very many faces in the cabinet are old but the determination of their party leader is new .I believe that it is the team leader who matters most in any set up .so if he is honest and straight he can easily remove twists in any team member .May Allah Bless them all with wisdom and strength to serve the nation in real sense .Ameen

Although very many faces in the cabinet are old but the determination of their party leader is new .I believe that it is the team leader who matters most in any set up .so if he is honest and straight he can easily remove twists in any team member .May Allah Bless them all with wisdom and strength to serve the nation in real sense .Ameen

So apparently FATA is not considered a part of Pakistan by PMLN. Being it’s voter from FATA I am disappointed to see that neither Shahab uddin nor Ghalib Khan are given any portfolio. SAFRON deals with affairs of tribal areas and who could understand it better than the MPs from Bajaur and Waziristan. Nawaz still favors a general over those who suffered. Its a dissapointment.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has inducted a 25-member federal cabinet with 16 full ministers and nine ministers of state. The cabinet members took oath from President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday. There were few surprises in the cabinet lineup, with most being men, old loyalists of Nawaz Sharif from his previous stints in power, and overwhelmingly (19 out of 25) from Punjab, the PML-N’s stronghold. While this appears natural given the makeup and mandate of the PML-N, it does raise questions about the new government’s ability to take the other provinces along in a situation where federal and provincial authorities nee d to work together on very many crucial issues. No women made it to full minister, two having to be satisfied with minister of state. Nawaz Sharif has decided to retain the defence and foreign affairs ministries to himself, the former significant in the light of the events of 1999, the latter for the centrality of relations with the world powers that be, especially the US, at the best of times, let alone at the present fraught juncture.

I was the retired Protocol Officer & Assistant Director (General) of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Islamabad. I watch pakistan politics and other political activities on pakistan and seen international politics and affairs relating the effects on Pakistan, particularly politics on Indian politics on pakistan also.